Chopin Pearls

Note that the first two "licks" are examples of the Harmonic Minor #4 Scale and the third is a minor line related to the Phrygian Dominant (sans 7) Scale. Amazingly, the last example is a symmetric diminished run from the Ballad in G minor composed in 1835!

The hints of exotic sounding scales in Chopin's music begs the question: was he somehow influenced by music of cultures further east of his homeland in which emphasis on odd "passing tones" is not so uncommon?

The first seven examples have been transposed to A minor or C major from the original keys.